Raw Jackfruit Biryani : Kathal Biryani

Its hard to get raw jack fruit in winter, especially in eastern part of India. Jackfruit is known as summer fruit. My hubby and my mother in law are big fans of kathal, whenever we buy jack-fruit from market, we end up by making some regular dishes with it like jack-fruit curry, jack-fruit kofta, jack fruit tikki and jack fruit kalia.

But on this new year we had some special guest with us, they demanded to eat some new dish with jackfruit. So I thought to make biryani. Jackfruit biryani is common in north India, I too made many times last summer. So I got a very good chance to impress my guests. And when they had it, they said the dish was excellent.

And why not ,jackfruit biryani is a flavorful combination of Indian basmati rice, jackfruit and Indian spices. Its turns more delicious when it is cooked in dum.

Basically the most difficult part is cutting jackfruit. Yes, its really a tuff task, but practice makes everything perfect. Jackfruit is very sticky. Make sure to oil it beforehand too, its really quite a pain getting rid of the stickiness once it grabs hold of your knife.

If you do get ooze on your hands, don’t worry – just put some oil on them and wash them in warm water, which will get it out in no time!

The only solution is oil, apply oil on your palms and knife. Then carefully cut the skin ,after that chop into pieces. Otherwise ask your vendor to wash and cut jackfruit.

INGREDIENTS ::

FOR JACKFRUIT GRAVY :

Jackfruit (cut into cubes) – 2 cups

Onion – 3 large

Ginger garlic paste – 3-4 tbsp

Hung Curd – ½ cup

Coriander powder – 1 tsp

Cumin powder – 1 tsp

Chilli powder – 2 tsp

Chopped green chillies – 2 tbsp

Mint leaves – ½ cup

Coriander leaves – ½ cup

*Biryani masala / garam masala – 2 tsp

Oil – as required

FOR RICE PREPARATION :

Basmati rice – 2 1/2 cups

Bay leaf – 1 no

Sahee jeera – ½ tsp

Peppercorn – 4 no

Cloves – 2

Cardamom – 2 no

Salt – to taste

Misc ingredients :

Kewra water – few drops

Kesar – few strands (soaked in warm milk)

Dough of whole wheat or all purpose flour

*BIRYANI MASALA :

Cloves – 12 no

Cinnamon- 1” pc

Black cardamom – 1 big

Green Cardamom – 4 no

Black pepper – 1/4th tsp

White pepper – 1/4th tsp

Sahi jeera – 2 tbsp

Dagadphool – 2 tbsp

Star anise – 1 pc

Fennel seeds- ½ tsp

Mace – 2 pcs

Nutmeg – ¼ th tsp

METHOD OF PREPARATION ::

First pressure Cook the jackfruit pieces with 1/4th cup of water with salt and turmeric.

Cook in medium flame till one whistle comes.

If the jackfruit is tender then bring one whistle on high flame.

Strain and keep the jackfruit pieces aside.

Dry roast the whole masalas written under biryani masala.

Blend in a mixture grinder and make fine powder.

Or else you can use store brought biryani masala or fresh garam masala for better result.

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Cooking is my passion.i love to play with myriad tastes of spices .
I belong to a odiya family by birth but marriade to a bengoli person.the crash of cultures between two families induced me to cook innovatively so as to make everyone happy.